Bishop Hiiboro Lunched a Peace Mission in Tombura
His lordship Barani Edwardo Hiiboro Kussala accompanied by priests, choirs, media personnel and other categories of members of the Catholic Church left Yambio on 22nd December 2022 to celebrate Christmas with the IDPs and community in Tombura county as a sign of hope and restoration of socio-cohesion between the warring communities there.
Bishop Hiiboro Lunched Peace Mission in Tombura
As peace and harmony began to prevail in Tombura County after months of inter-communal fighting, the Catholic Diocese of Tombura Yambio is now exerting effort to harmonize relations between the two conflicting tribes in the area through what is called “Lunching of a Peace Mission”.
His lordship Barani Edwardo Hiiboro Kussala accompanied by priests, choirs, media personnel and other categories of members of the Catholic Church left Yambio on 22nd December 2022 to celebrate Christmas with the IDPs and community in Tombura county as a sign of hope and restoration of socio-cohesion between the warring communities there.
In the course of Christmas eve, the Bishop of CDTY launched a peace mission at Tombura Freedom square. The lunch was attended by communities from both Zande and Balanda tribes.
In his message at the lunch, he called on the two tribes to champion the mission by excising the spirit of forgiveness, love, and unity in diversity to enable total peace to prevail in the area.
The Peace mission was under the theme “Let them all be one”, quoted from the Book of John 17:21. Barani Hiiboro urged communities of Tombura to embrace peace and have a mutual understanding of socio-cohesion so that development can prevail in the area, he told the communities to have the love of God in their hearts and be close to Church just to avoid evil mindset.
“What had happened in Tombura was too bad, we can describe it as an evil mindset, people who lived together for so long decided to kill themselves. But on my trip to Tombura, I had found peace has returned back”. He stated.
The Bishop has called on people who fled the conflict to neighboring counties, to return back home and begin to develop the area.
“All these places from Tombura, Nagero, Source Yubu, Ezo, and Nandi let’s live in peace and join our hands to develop our places”. He added.
The CDTY Bishop discouraged the communities against the negative mindset of tribalism, which he described as a harmful instrument of destruction.
For more than a year, Tombura County was engulfed in a cycle of community conflict that resulted in the displacement of thousands of the civil population with hundreds of others killed in the fight.
The conflict crippled the economy of the County and destroyed diverse infrastructures, including hospitals being vandalized.
However, in recent months relative peace has begun to return in the area as some of the IDPs sheltering in different camps have begun to return to their homes voluntarily to start a new life.
In his visit, Bishop Hiiboro Kussala with local traders operating at Tombura markets and assured of God’s protection restoration of permanent peace in the area to enable it to economy regain its strength.
In the market, Hiiboro staged a moment of prayers with the local traders asking for God’s mercies, a heart of forgiveness, and unity among the communities in Tombura County.
